The Gabor sisters had one, and so did Judy Garland — not to mention every contestant on Toddlers and Tiaras: A looming matriarch with a personal agenda and a drive for fame.

It’s a complex but consistent cultural fragment with endless dramatic possibilities as well as tragic overtones, but in the hands of Susan Sarandon, the domineering matriarch finally finds humanity as a flawed, narcissistic, but also loving parent in the form of real-life character Florence Aadland.

Aadland was the mother of Beverly Aadland, the underage lover of Errol Flynn in his final years — and the one who held the aging swashbuckler as he took his final breaths in the residence of Dr. Gould, a Vancouver physician and cousin to legendary pianist Glenn Gould, in October, 1959.

Though time has faded the scandal, it comes back to life in saturated Technicolor tones in the new movie The Last of Robin Hood which had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival over the weekend.

With Kevin Kline playing the aging roué and Dakota Fanning playing the tempting ingenue, Sarandon’s role essentially bridges the gap between the fame and anonymity, between innocence and experience, and between what is and what could be.

According to Sarandon, she is many things. But she is not a monster.

“You know, it’s not just mothers who do this kind of thing. It’s fathers, too. Look at fathers who push their sons into sports. Or maybe it’s like the mother who wants to push her daughter to be a doctor when she just wants to be a painter,” says Sarandon, holding her lapdog as she entertains reporters in a succession of one-on-ones.

“It all comes out of a need to protect your child, and give them something that they are proud of, something that will give them a living. It’s the same motivation that makes a parent panic when a parent finds out their kid is gay. You want your kid to have an easy life.”

Sarandon knows what she’s talking about because she’s not only a mother to a daughter and two sons, she may well be working alongside her distaff offspring on a new TV show inspired by their own lives together.

“Sometimes, your dreams as a parent can get mixed up. What you think may be fun for your kid gets hard to see because you don’t see your kid as a separate person. You’ve been taking care of them and making decisions for them, and then you have to let go and trust them to make their own, and it’s a tough transition.”

In the case of Florence Aadland, the goal was to give her daughter Beverly a leg up in the world of show business by essentially facilitating, and enabling, an affair with a man who was three decades older.

The public saw her as a pariah and a brand of maternal pimp, but Sarandon says it’s only human to turn a blind eye to the truth you don’t want to see, especially if it’s beneficial.

“She had a beautiful child who she thought would do well in show business. So it was very convenient for her to not see what was actually going on, but everyone selectively chooses the truth, whether it’s going to war, or choosing a lifestyle, or ignoring immoral things going on at your place of work.”

Sarandon calls these “tests of authenticity” and she takes them very seriously because she says of all the things she’s learned over the years, the only thing things that really matter in the end are “living an authentic life and being kind.”

“It takes a very brave person to search for the truth when it’s inconvenient and it costs you something,” she says.

“Errol Flynn was authentic. He definitely didn’t care what anybody said and he lived a life that he felt content with.”

Indeed, the new film captures the essence of the man who faced statutory rape charges even before he started courting the young Aadland, who was just 15 when they first met.

“My grandmother got married at 12 …” says Sarandon. “ … To a man who was significantly older.”

It’s a phenomenon she understands because women seek freedom from the parental box. They also have sexual desire that society refuses to accept and normalize.

“We still have this double standard that the girl is the ho and the guy is the player,” she says with an appropriate arch of her eyebrows.

“If girls weren’t described as the ones who have to discipline the boy and say ‘no,’ and if they were allowed to have desire and pleasure themselves, and if they weren’t taught they had to gain confidence and self-esteem making someone else happy, it would change the game quite a bit.”

Alas, she says, we aren’t, and so even a half-century after the Aadland-Flynn scandal rocked the cradle of American culture, women are still being treated like porcelain dolls at some profound level.

“I’m all about family values, but authentic ones,” says Sarandon. “I think there has been an emphasis on whatever success is to be weighed by attaining certain goals and getting money, but we have to start talking about happiness and being fulfilled. It’s not about accumulating an inordinate degree of wealth … or fame. It’s about feeling good about yourself.”

The Last of Robin Hood is at TIFF seeking distribution, and as of yet, has no release date.